An update for all those who plan to come to Batam and need a SIM card.
The lengthy procedure for registering SIM cards In Indonesia, mandatory for using them without any grace period, is still in place (see previous posts for details). When you buy a new SIM card, you MUST register it, providing your Indonesian ID number or Passport number if you are foreigner, or the SIM card cannot be activated. I asked several people in various shops, and all confirmed.
In the next lines, I will focus on Simpati cards, as they are the most widely used and maybe also the best performing.
1) Those who have an Indo ID (NIK, NOKK) can register sending a message: "UNTUK REGISTRASI SILAHKAN KETIK *444*NIK*NOKK#".
An employee at the TelKomSel Service Center told me that this can done also by a foreigner, sending the passport number instead of the NIK, but I doubt it may work. Should it really work, it would mean that the system accepts a registration giving any random number, as I doubt the system can check the existance and regularity of a passport number of foreign countries.
I did not try this simple way, and later I will explain why.
2) Those foreigners who do not have an Indo ID can register ONLY going to a Grapari Service Center of TelKomSel Customer Care. There is one at Nagoya Hill, another one at Penuin, at Batam Center, etc.
Assuming the *444* message cannot work with a foreign country passport, there is no other service center other than Grapari which can register the card under a foreign passport number. The shops cannot, even the big ones, not to say the small kiosks.
This is pissing off enough, and that is the same situation I reported in May 2018, but there's a good news now. The INDONESIA BOLEH Task Force has developed suitable antibodies.
The Good News
Many small shops are now selling
pre-registered SIM cards. All such shops include all those small counters recently opened at the Harbour Bay arrival lounge, which you see right after the immigration and security screening, and a few ones at Lucky Plaza.
I tried to understand what are those
pre-registered SIM cards, and under what name are they registered, but I received only Indonesian-style smiles back. Someone tried to say "It's TelkomSel which preregister cards", but of course it could not be exactly that, as the reason of imposing registration was to associate each card to a precise physical person, for security purposes. I think someone is pre-registering cards using random NIK-NOKK numbers.
This is a BIG RELIEF for all those like me, who visit Indonesia for few days, and would be not really happy to have to spend 1-2 hours, after buying the SIM card, to reach a Grapari point and queue just for this burocratic requirement.
At Harbour Bay Arrival right after Immigration, I chose the counter with the nicest smiling girl (a business criterion as others).
I found the pre-registered Simpati cards for 4G LTE data access sold for 150k (9 GB one month) or 120k (6 GB). I bought the second, without inquiring other shops to find a better offer because I was in hurry. Being in hurry made me probably miss the best deal, but I really had no time to spend to save 20k
Also SIM cards of other operators are on sale, cheaper down up to 50k for 3G access, but I preferred to opt for the best. I tried the speed transfer and I achieved 20 Mb/s via my mobile wifi router.
A signage on top of the glass showcase of another counter advertises cards with 3GB data for Rp 80k (I don't remember what Operator).
The shop at Harbour Bay was not sellng cheaper SIM cards for phone calls. I went to Lucky Plaza, where after few inquiries I found a shop selling pre-registered Simpati cards for phone calls (the "pre-registered" feature is the key feature and is not offered everywhere). I could choose between cards costing 75k including 10k of balance, but not pre-registered, and pre-registered cards costing 75k but with 0 balance. I bought this one and I added 20k balance (plus 2k service charge, total 97k).
Note: a big THANK YOU to Abang ndnd, who provide me significant advice on this subject in the last days.